1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a number drawing apparatus that provides a fair draw of numbers for entertainment purposes using rolling bodies such as spheres (balls), and relates to a game machine provided with the number drawing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In games such as bingo, a player is often blindfolded and allowed to pick some balls from among a plurality of balls so as to be excited with anticipation.
There are bingo game machines that automatically perform the selection operation. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-71010 discloses a bingo game machine (herein, termed the first well-known art) including a spherical rotating basket, which rotates to mix a plurality of balls in the basket, and a ball catcher provided in the rotating basket; each ball bears a symbol, and when a ball from among the mixed up balls falls into the ball catcher, the symbol thereon is read.
There is also a bingo game machine (herein, termed the second well-known art) including a rotating dish that slowly rotates on a center axis at the concave central portion and a plurality of marked ball catchers provided on the rotating dish, in which a plurality of balls, rolled onto the rotating disk by some technique, fall into some of the ball catchers, and symbols corresponding to the ball catchers are used for bingo.
In the first well-known art, the mechanism for rotating the basket for mixing the balls is complex, which increases the total cost of the game machine. Since the game machine allows the player to select one ball from among the mixed balls and leads the selected ball to a detecting unit to detect its unique identification, an identifying symbol must be provided on each of the balls, and this increases the cost of the balls. In addition, all the mixed balls must be caught by the ball catchers, so that the total time required for one game may be prolonged.
In the second well-known art, the added cost of the balls, which is a problem in the first well-known art, is eliminated because the selected symbol is instead specified by a corresponding ball catcher on the rotating dish. Nevertheless, the cost of the rotating dish itself is higher due to the division of the dish in order to satisfy the need to provide the rotating dish with ball-catching holes including sensors. When the balls move outwardly or fall into the center, there may be a case where the time required for one game is prolonged because the user must put balls back into the game machine.
In both the first well-known art and the second well-known art, the fairness of the bingo is emphasized, and it is not intended that the movement of the balls themselves be enjoyed by the players.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a number drawing apparatus in which time management is improved and which is very entertaining, and to provide a game machine provided with the number drawing apparatus.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a game machine including the above-described number drawing apparatus, which provides a player with a game prize in accordance with the result of the draw by the above number drawing apparatus.
To these ends, according to an aspect of the present invention, the above objects are achieved through provision of a number drawing apparatus including a rotating unit having a surface which rolls rolling bodies supplied thereon, and a driving unit for rotating the rotating unit in a fixed plane so that the supplied rolling bodies move outwardly. Information specified by the outward movement of each of the supplied rolling bodies is used as the result of the draw.
Preferably, unique information specified by the moving rolling bodies when the bodies have stopped is used as the result of the draw.
A plurality of regions to which unique symbols are assigned may be provided along the periphery of the rotating unit, and the result of the draw may be determined by the symbols assigned to the regions in which the rolling bodies stops.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the above objects are achieved through provision of a number drawing apparatus including a rotating unit having a surface which rolls rolling bodies supplied to the surface, a rolling-body supply unit for supplying the rolling bodies from the central portion of the rotating unit to the surface, a driving unit for rotating the rotating unit in a fixed plane so that each of the supplied rolling bodies randomly travels outwardly from a supplied position in a direction toward the periphery of the rotating unit, and a plurality of catching units provided along the periphery of the rotating unit, the catching units each having a unique symbol assigned thereto. The result of the draw is specified by the symbol assigned to the catching unit in which the moving rotating body having flown out is caught.
Preferably, the plurality of catching units each include a detecting means for outputting a predetermined signal when the rolling body is caught, and the output signal specifies the symbol assigned to the catching unit in which the rolling body is caught.
When the catching units catch the rolling bodies, the catching units may hold the rolling bodies so that the rolling bodies partly protrude, and may allow the rolling bodies to fall with predetermined timing.
Until N different symbols are determined in sets of N rolling bodies where N represents a natural number not less than 2, the catching units may hold the N rolling bodies, and may allow all the N rolling bodies to simultaneously fall with predetermined timing.
The rolling-body-supply means may include a supply hole for supplying the rolling bodies, and a guidance mechanism for accelerating the rolling bodies and for guiding the accelerated rolling bodies to the surface.
Preferably, the distance between the supply hole and the surface is equal in all directions.
The number drawing apparatus may further include a return wall for returning each of the rolling bodies which has not been caught by any one of the catching units.
Preferably, the return wall accelerates the rolling body and returns the accelerated rolling body.
The rolling bodies may be spheres.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the above objects are achieved through the provision of a number drawing apparatus including a rotating unit having a surface which rolls rolling bodies in which each attitude of the rolling bodies or each position at which the rolling bodies stop specifics a unique symbol, a rolling-body supply unit for supplying the rolling bodies from the central portion of the rotating unit to the surface, and a driving unit for rotating the rotating unit so that each of the supplied rolling bodies randomly moves outwardly from a supplied position in a direction toward the periphery of the rotating unit. Symbols specified by the rolling bodies when the rolling bodies have stopped are used as the results of the draw.
Preferably, the game machine is a bingo game machine in which the result of the draw provides different effects to a plurality of game players.